Flying Lotus: An Awesome Artist You Really, Really Have to Check Out

From: Flying Lotus' MySpace page

Scouring the web for great music, I came across this news article from Pitchfork for an artist I’ve only recently have been listening to: LA-based experimental beat maker Flying Lotus. Don’t let the “experimental” tag fool you at all. Lotus is extremely accessible, cooking up what are arguably some of the most inventive beats in contemporary hip-hop since Timbaland and The Neptunes’ peak back in the early ‘00s.

Pitchfork reports that Lotus has been posting up new beats on his MySpace, including a remix of Lil’ Wayne’s “I Feel Like Dying,” which I personally thought was kinda dull and overrated, but is transformed here as a robotic synth monster that creeps on you slow and steady without ever losing its grip.

Photo cred: alexrapada.com

As with all FlyLo tracks, the new ones are singular, wacky, insane, irresistibly danceable, and that rarity which only the best artists this side of Daft Punk can muster: sincere and emotional. The sublime textures in a song like “Lullaby,” or the massive, primitive-funk of the J Dilla-esque “Data Entry” will definitely have your head bopping and craving for more.

His 2008 album, Los Angeles, is well worth checking out (as is this profile of him in the New Yorker last year).

Below, a classic Flying Lotus remix of Radiohead’s “Reckoner.”